PolyBase: Support for Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Database does not currently support Polybase, though it is supported in the on-premise version.


Not planned at this time. Will keep this item open for future review.
55 comments
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Anonymous commented
This is becoming something extremely needed now
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Anonymous commented
We are reading parquet file from adls through databricks and after processing putting in sql db.
If MS provides fullflage polybase features in sql db, we can remove dependencies on databricks
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Jovan Popovic commented
Polybase is not supported in Azure SQL, but there are few workarounds:
- Use OPENROWSET function that reads file form Azure Blob Storage: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/sqlserverstorageengine/loading-files-from-azure-blob-storage-into-azure-sql-database
- Use External table TYPE=RDBMS to read Azure Data Lake files using Synapse SQL: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/azure-sql/read-azure-storage-files-using-synapse-sql-external-tables/
- Use linked server (Azure SQL managed instance only) to read Azure Data Lake files using Synapse SQL: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/azure-sql/linked-server-to-synapse-sql-to-implement-polybase-like-scenarios-in-managed-instance/ -
Oakes Matt commented
This would be a VERY useful feature - seems odd that it would only be available through on-prem SQL or Synapse, but not Azure SQL db
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Arley commented
please add this feature on azure sql databases!!
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demolition porg commented
Surely this can't be unplanned?? So you're saying on-prem SQL server can do this but Azure SQL can't? Isn't the cloud supposed to have the latest features? This is a bizarre situation and can't believe it's not there, I just assumed it was...
please add this to Azure SQL, we really don't want to have to provision a Synapse analytics instance just for this!
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Anonymous commented
must have feature!!
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Scott commented
Hm... are you sure this is correct? I have actually used External Tables (Polybase) within an Azure SQL Database. However, the source is a read-only replicated Azure SQL database, not blob/file source. We did this to ingest/land data into a data warehouse.
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Anonymous commented
Need poly base to be able to load data from Snowflake.
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Jonas commented
It's a must have feature
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Ian Mckay commented
Polybase is potentially a great low-risk design option when wanting to use satellite Opco Azure SQL Database but much of source data is in on-prem ERP export files
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Rod V commented
This should be a feature in Azure SQL Database to match on prem SQL server. Its not always possible to justify the expense of Azure SQL Data Warehouse (nice as it is).
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Anonymous commented
How is this still not a feature?
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Darren Fuller commented
Why is this still not a feature (along with changing recovery models). I mean, other than making customers use the more expensive synapse offering.
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G K commented
AWS provides very simple way of reading parquet file, Azure doesn't. At least polybase would be comparatively easier feature to get to ADL parquet files from sql server.
How can you have this feature on on-premises but not in the cloud? Please enable this at the earliest. -
Anonymous commented
How is this not a feature!
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Smitha Kulakrni commented
This is really required to make life a lot easier to load data directly to Azure SQL from data lake . Please make this available soon.
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Anonymous commented
this is required for us to fully adopt azure sql database over on-prem sql server.
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James commented
please add this feature
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Rajkumar commented
Very needed feature! Definitely should be considered at the earliest